A.G. Gancarski
The ethics office in Jacksonville’s city hall is still going strong, and director Carla Miller is getting international attention this week.
Miller will be headed to Panama City — the one on the isthmus, not the one due west on the panhandle — this week to moderate a panel at the United Nations’ 17th International Anti-Corruption conference (IACC).
As the press release from the ethics office states, “The panel session moderated by Ms. Miller is a coordinated effort between the United Nations, the FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces), the Global Fund for the development of cities, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and the UCLG Middle East section.”
The panel session will “showcase how local governments create increased citizen trust in their governments and will identify problems and solutions in the process of implementing transparency policies.”
From there, Miller and her deputy, Kirby Oberdorfer, will present at the Harvard University school of education.
The topic there: the importance of “citizen involvement” in government ethics initiatives.
As city hall regulars know, there is a small but determined cadre of citizen whistleblowers, who often find their way into major policy debates, such as Curtis Lee and the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County have with issues ranging from the police and fire pension fund to union heads lobbying to protect the positions of “safety officers” in last year’s budget discussion.
